 ;  

LETTER 

OF 

MR.  JOHN  ROACH 

TO  THE 

3? o  s  t  m  a  ster  -  Gener  a  1 , 

SUGGESTING  THE  EXPERIMENT  OF 

ADVERTISING  W  PROPOSALS  of  the  LOWEST  RATES 

FOR  THE 

TRANSPORTATION  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  MAILS 

At  which  the  Merchants  and  Capitalists 

\.  •  %.\ ,  %       '  .         of  ■  ■ 

BOSTON,  NEW  YORK,  PHILADELPHIA,  BALTIMORE, 
ANT)  NEW  ORLEANS 

WILL     ESTABLISH     AND     MAIITTAI  NT 

AMERICAN  STEAMSHIP  LINES 

FROM  THOSE  CITIES  TO 

ETJEOPBAIT  POETS. 


GIBSON  BROTHERS,  PRINTERS. 
1876. 


LETTER 

OF 

MR.  JOHN  ROACH 

TO  THE 

Postmaster-General, 

SUGGESTING  THE  EXPERIMENT  OF 

ADVERTISING  for  PROPOSALS  op  the  LOWEST  RATES 

FOR  THE 

TRANSPORTATION  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  MAILS 

At  which  the  Merchants  and  Capitalists 

OF 

BOSTON,  NE  \Y  YORK,  PHILADELPHIA,  BALTIMORE, 
AND  NEW  ORLEANS 

WILL     ESTABLISH    -A-USTID  MAHTTAIN 

AMERICAN  STEAMSHIP  LINES 

FROM  THOSE  CITIES  TO 

ZETTZE^OPZE^nNT  PORTS. 


GIBSON  BROTHERS,  PRINTERS 
187G. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2013 


http://archive.org/details/letterofmrjohnroOOroac 


To  the  Honorable  Marshall  Jewell, 

Postmaster- General  of  the  United  States: 

Sir:  Id  common  with  all  who  desire  the  restoration  of 
our  national  prosperity,  I  have  watched  with  deep  interest 
the  various  efforts  which  you  have  made  and  are  making 
to  increase  the  efficiency  of  our  postal  service. 

The  entire  community  comprehend,  more  or  less  per-  The  relations 

.  .  .of  fast  mail  serv- 

tectly,  according  to  the  decree  01  attention  they  have  given  ice  to  more  rapid 

J  '  &  to  _  J  63  commercial  in- 

the  subject,  the  benefits  to  be  derived  from  greater  speed tercommunica- 
of  postal  transfers  between  different  sections,  and  the  con-, 
sequent  increased  rapidity  and  certainty  of  our  commercial 
exchanges.  It  is  through  precisely  this  process  that,  from 
year  to  year,  the  commerce,  as  well  as  the  productive  in- 
dustries, of  the  present,  have  been  relieved  of  the  heaviest 
burdens  of  cost,  waste  and  uncertainty  which  were  borne 
by,  and  which  for  so  many  ages  dwarfed,  the  commerce  of 
the  past; 

That  you  have  mastered  the  problem  of  the  intimate  and 
inseparable  connection  between  rapid  postal  communica- 
tion and  extended  freight  transfers,  I  cannot  doubt ;  and 
your  interviews  with  railway  managers  and  other  practical 
men,  in  elaborating  your  plans  for  the  fast  mail  service,  must 
have  also  afforded  you  abundant  data  as  to  the  difference 
of  cost  between  railway  transfers  at  a  low  and  at  relatively 
higher  rates  of  speed. 

The  knowledge,  foresight  and  enterprise  which  you  have 
exhibited,  encourage  me  to  address  you  at  this  time  on 
another,  and,  to  my  mind,  the  broader  and  more  important 
branch  of  the  same  great  subject. 

However  vast  and  complete  our  system  of  internal   The  same  rule 

.  .   -  '  '     .         applies  to  ocean 

communication  and  transportation  may  be  made,  its  high- mails  and  to 
est  benefits  cannot  be  reaped  by  our  people  unless  it  shall 
be  placed  in  the  fullest  and  most  perfect  connection  and 
reciprocity  with  the  world-wide  and  hourly-growing  system 
which  unites  the  nations  to-day  in  one  commercial  family. 

For  my  own  part,  [  long  to  see  the  principle  which  under- 
lies the  success  of  our  fast  mail  and  freight  service  by 


ocean  commerce. 


4 


land  applied  with  equal  or  superior  vigor  to  our  ocean- 
crossing  postal  and  transportation  service;   and  I  do  not 
come'to  America  at  all  hesitate  in  making  the  broad  assertion  that  this  can 

from    American  ,  n          l       i  i 

and  not  foreign  be  well  and  adequately  done,  by  the  enterprise  and  enersrv 

steamships.  >     J  r  &J 

ot  our  own,  the  American,  people. 

To  no  nation  on  the  earth  has  any  such  boon  ever  come 
from  the  hands  of  foreigners,  and  even  when  it  has  seemed 
to  be  so  conferred  in  some  measure,  the  partial  and  decep- 
tive gift  has  been  the  price  of  a  tribute  whose  burden 
would  not  be  endured  for  a  moment  if  its  existence  were 
clearly  known  and  understood. 

While  the  relation  of  rapid  communication  to  commer- 
cially successful  transportation  between  points  which  are 
separated  by  oceanic  transits  is  to  the  fullest  extent  as 
close  as  in  corresponding  railway  systems  on  land,  the 
ratio  of  cost  to  speed  is  much  greater  in  the  former  case 
than  in  the  latter,  for  many  reasons ;  and  this  fact,  con- 
joined with  the  greater  supposed  risk  to  capital  invested, 
has  had  much  to  do  with  the  tardiness  displayed  by  our 
merchants  at  the  present  time  in  grappling  with  the  inevit- 
able task  before  them. 
„,    .  That  the  people  as  a  whole  are  abundantly  willing  to  pay 

I  he  American  L       1  •/  O        XT  «/ 

people  are  will-  tae  increased  cost  of  the  fast  mails  by  land ;  that,  in  fact, 

ing  to  pay  lor  es-  J  *  '  ' 

icai,shLtfamTh?p  tney  could  not  and  would  not  consent  to  dispense  with 
LTtk "bus he°d them,  has  been  fully  demonstrated,  and  I  am  satisfied  that 
oTthemsdfves.are they  would  render  as  prompt  and  intelligent  an  assent  to 
a  similarly  profitable  investment  in  an  ocean  postal  service, 
provided  they  were  well  assured  that  it  was  the  increased 
speed  and  service,  and  these  only,  for  which  they  were 
taxed. 

If,  at  the  same  time,  the  expenditures  required  for  such 
a  service  were  to  be  so  judiciously  employed,  as  has  been 
done  by  the  statesmen  of  England,  France,  and  other 
countries,  that  the  employment  furnished  should  stimulate 
private  enterprise  to  the  creation  anew  of  our  ruined  mer- 
chant marine,  I  think  it  would  be  easy  to  show  that  the 
outlay,  though  for  a  specific  and  sufficient  object,  would 
sink  into  insignificance  in  comparison  with  this  collateral 
advantage. 

If  I  venture  to  urge  this  feature  of  the  question  some- 
what persistently,  it  is  because  I  am  sure  that  an  examina- 


tion  of  the  subject  will  convince  any  intelligent  man  that 
there  was  never  a  better  time  than  the  present  for  the  swift  tinJefisefa?oJabie 
recovery  of  all,  and  more  than  all  we  have  lost,  of  our  for- American  ships8 
mer  position  among  ship-building  and  ship-owning  nations. 

We  need  but  glance  at  our  unfortunate  situation  at  the  The  war  de- 
close  of  the  war.    Our  old  merchant  fleets,  of  which  wTe  ships. vd  ur°ng 

i      •         i      l        i        tne    war>  w0°d 

were  so  proud,  were  all  gone.    A  revolution  had  taken  gave  place  to 

- .  t  iron,  side-wheels 

place  in  the  very  science  and  art  of  building  ships.   Wood10  propellers; 

L  "  ,  ship-yards  and 

had  given  place  to  iron  :  the  side-wheel  to  the  propeller : skilled  labor  dis- 

O  I  11  7  appeared ;  for- 

the  ordinary  engines  to  the  compound;  and  from  all  the fign n*tions buil,t 

J         o  r  '  the   snips  and 

experience,  the  uses,  and  the  results  of  this  revolution,  the ryin^tfade.rcar 
long  years  of  our  civil  strife  had  shut  us  out.    We  had  no 
ship-yards,  no  skilled  labor,  accustomed  to  the  creation  of 
the  new  order  of  sea-going  vessels. 

The  cost  of  everything  which  entered  into  the  construc- 
tion of  ships  had  also  become  so  high  with  us,  as  compared 
with  other  nations,  that  we  were  thereby  shut  out  from  suc- 
cessful competition,  either  in  building  or  in  maintaining 
and  running  them.  The  revolution  in  the  carrying  business 
on  the  ocean  had  been  as  great  as  that  upon  the  land  when 
the  railroad  took  the  place  of  the  coach  and  the  wagon ;  and 
in  both  cases  independent  individual  enterprises  had  to  be 
superseded  by  great  corporate  or  partnership  undertakings, 
with  large  concentrated  capital ;  in  many  cases  also  directed 
and  assisted  by  the  Government.  To  these  great  changes 
in  ocean  navigation  wTe  had  not  adapted  ourselves. 

As  a  consequence,. European  enterprise,  availing  itself 
of  our  calamity,  seemed  to  have  seized  the  whole  field 
offered  by  the  disappearance  of  the  American  flag  from  the 
sea,  and  occupied  it  so  fully  that  there  seemed  no  crevice 
left  for  the  wedge  of  American  enterprise  to  enter. 

Ten  years  have  now  gone  by,  since  then,  and  in  many  re-   But  ten 

°  ...  years  since  the 

spects  there  has  come  a  most  significant  and  promising  ^jchangehas 
change. 

We  now  have  the  ship-yards,  the  foundries,  the  mechani-   We  now  have 

1  i •  •  t  .    .  i       .  i  i  •      •       i  the  vards>  cheap 

cal  appliances,  in  ample  provision  and  with  unlimited  ca- material  and  ia- 

.  ...  .  k°r>   and  can 

pacitv  tor  rapid  multiplication  and  increase.    We  have  thea§ain  cover  the 

1  L  ocean   with  our 

skilled  labor,  temporarily  and  compulsorily  idle,  but  seek- jj^sjj^**  can 
ing  and  anxious  for  employment  ;   we  have  the  raw  mate- 
rial, of  a  quality  superior  to  that  controlled  by  any  other 
people,  and  which  we  can  now  produce  and  utilize  as  cheap- 
ly, to  >av  the  least,  as  can  be  done  elsewhere  on  the  earth. 


6 


We  have,  therefore,  in  the  progress  of  our  maritime 
history,  reached  a  point  where  we  are  once  more  able,  as 
in  times  gone  by,  to  place  upon  the  water  such  ships  as 
the  commerce  of  the  present  calls  for,  equal  in  all  respects, 
not  only  in  quality  and  character,  but,  as  well,  in  their  cost 
and  the  time  required  to  build  them,  to  those  which  any 
other  people  are  able  to  float  beside  them. 

This  mighty  stride  has  been  made  by  the  energy  and 
enterprise  of  our  people,  under  very  adverse  circum- 
stances. Every  step  of  the  way  lias  been  watched  with 
the  most  intense  and  bitter  jealousy  by  foreign  ship- 
builders and  their  correspondents,  agents,  and  sympa- 
thizers in  this  country,  while  at  the  same  time  the  one 
enterprise  which  was  open  for  the  development  of  our 
shipping  interest  has  been  largely  under  the  pernicious 
and  paralyzing  control  of  stock-gamblers  and  speculators. 

The  question  will  probably  suggest  itself  here,  "  Why, 
"  then,  if  this  be  true,  and  the  American  ship-building 
"  interest  has  indeed  reached  such  a  pitch  of  development, 
"  does  it  not  at  once  step  forward  and  rescue  from  foreign 
"  flag's  our  ocean  steam  marine  ?" 
But ship-buiid-     The  question  may  seem  pertinent,  but  it  is  not.  The 

crs  are  not  ship-  a.  J  1  ? 

cSSo^iaS^P"^11^^11^  power  and  the  ship-owning  and  employing 
wL-dsbwiy! for" power  are  by  no  means  identical.  They  have,  indeed,  never 
been  as  intimately  connected  in  this  country  as  in  some 
others;  as  they  are  to-day  in  Great  Britain,  for  example. 

What  I  have  described  as  our  present  position  has  been 
achieved  by  individual  effort,  sufficient  for  the  work  at- 
tempted, but  inadequate  to  an  achievement  which  may  well 
appeal  to  the  strength  of  the  united  mercantile  community. 
That  which  has  been  already  done  has  not  called  for  the 
employment  of  such  an  aggregation  of  capital,  of  wisdom, 
and  of  energy,  as  will  be  indispensable  in  any  attempt  at 
wrestling  with  the  accumulated  financial  and  commercial 
strength  which  has  been  absorbed  by  and  sustains  the 
present  foreign  control  of  our  ocean  carrying  trade. 

It  is  precisely  for  the  purpose  of  suggesting  a  method 
for  creating  such  an  aggregation,  of  calling  together  for 
united  effort  the  now  inert  but  abundant  elements  of  such 
a  power,  that  I  have  taken  the  liberty  of  thus  addressing  yon. 

Capita]  is  proverbially  timid,  and  capitalists  are  slow  to 


7 


venture  in  new  and  untried  ways.  History  teaches  us  that 
the  very  nations  who  now  monopolize  this  field,  when 
they  arrived  at  the  point  of  development  al  which  we  now 
find  ourselves,  were  compelled  to  deal  with  the  same  inert- 
ness and  apparent  indifference  of  their  own  merchants. 

The  carrying  of  ocean  mails  was  made  in  every  case  the 
lever  by  winch  the  encouragement  and  help  of  the  nation 
as  a  whole  was  applied  m  aid  of  the  particular  interest  to 
whose  management  the  well-being  of  the  Commonwealth 


It  must  be  in- 
iced  to  come 
rward  by  the 

in  this  regard  must  of  necessity  he  committed.    I  send  you  S^cSv^nmen3! 


nment 
a  r  r  y  i  n  g 


herewith  an  English  publication,  recording  the  views  and  oceran  mail 
action  of  the  ablest  statesmen  of  Great  Britain,  which 
presents  the  most  convincing  proofs  that  the  present  com- 
manding position  of  the  British  steam  marine  on  the  North 
Atlantic  and  Pacific  oceans  has  been  the  direct  result  of 
wisely  employing  the  postal  service  as  a  stimulant  to  pri- 
vate and  corporate  enterprise  in  its  beginning.  The  adop- 
tion of  a  similar  policy  on  the  part  of  our  own  statesmen 
and  leaders  is  all  that  any  American  should  ask,  and  it  is 
all  that  would  be  required  for  the  accomplishment  of  the 
end  in  view. 

Indifference  to  the  welfare  of  our  commerce  is  by  no 
means  in  accordance  with  our  traditional  policy  as  a  peo- 
ple, nor  do  I  believe  that  any  such  indifference  really  ex- 
ists.   As  bearing  upon  this  point  I  may  cite  the  persistent   Buying  foreign 

ships  will  not  an- 
swer ;  it  is  not  i 
question  of  con 
struction,  but  c 
profitable  run 

•the  mistaken  impression  that  the  failure  of  our  merchants  afnfe0/ consStmc- 
to  provide  themselves  with  ships  was  due  to  the  greater tlon- 
cost  of  construction  here  than  abroad.  The  inaction  of  our 
merchants  now,  when  ships  can  be  cheaply  built  in  Amer- 
ica, exposes  this  fallacy,  if  it  needed  any  exposure,  and  it 
cannot  be  doubted  that  the  operation  of  the  laws  against 
foreign  ships  in  our  coasting  trade  or  under  our  flag 
has  been  eminently  beneficial  to  the  nation.  Had  this 
protection  and  encouragement  to  home-built  ships  been  re- 
moved by  repeal,  four  years  ago,  we  should  not  be  in  the 
advantageous  position  we  occupy  to-day. 

Nor  should  we  lose  sight  in  this  connection  of  the  fact  American  cap- 

.  .  .  ill*  n      i  •        •  r>   •     'ta^  would  not 

that  the  premium  on  gold,  during  all  this  time,  has  ot  it- buy  foreign 

.  ships. 

self  been  such  a  disadvantage  that  the  several  measure.-; 


and  intelligent  refusal  of  Congress  to  repeal  our  navigation  swer;  11  isrnota 

°  o  i  o  question  of  con- 

laws,  as  desired  by  some   well-meaning  citizens    under  struction>  but  of 


8 


hinted  at  would  not  have  added  one  single  sliip,  under  the 
American  flag,  to  any  American  port.  There  was  no  time 
between  1S61  and  1873  when  the  freest  of  "free-ship" 
laws  would  have  been  of  any  practical  use  to  us,  since  the 
premium  on  gold  during  those  years  would  have  forced 
our  merchants  to  pay,  in  buying  foreign-built  ships,  an 
average  price  of  40  per  cent,  more  for  every  keel  than 
would  have  been  paid  by  the  very  Englishmen  and  other 
European  shipmasters  with  whom  they  would  have  been 
compelled  to  compete  in  trade.  Moreover,  the  entire  spare 
capital  of  the  nation  was  invested  in  its  own  bonds,  whose 
holders,  whether  merchants  or  others,  had  entire  faith  in 
the  ultimate  attainment  of  a  par  gold  value  for  these  ex- 
pressions of  the  national  good  faith.  It  was  no  temptation 
to  any  man,  who  held  bonds  or  money  to  buy  them  with, 
to  turn  money  or  bonds  into  foreign-built  ships  at  a  loss 
of  40  per  cent,  as  compared  with  his  European  rival,  and 
to  run  them  at  so  great  a  forced  disadvantage,  when  he 
believed  that  time  would  surely  put  that  very  40  per  cent., 
more  or  less,  in  his  own  pocket,  without  risk  and  without 
further  exertion  on  his  part.  In  all  the  markets  of  the 
world,  therefore,  our  merchants  would  have  been  at  the 
mercy  of  their  competitors,  no  matter  what  amount  of 
"drawback"  or  so-called  "freedom,"  might  have  been  ac- 
corded them  by  statute  law. 

That  indifference  to  commercial  interests  can  only  be 
regarded  as  a  fruit  of  narrowness  and  ignorance,  would 
Besides,  the  seem  to  require  no  argument;  but  in  these  days,  when  the 

ship  is  all  labor,  ....  .  ,  .  , 

which  should  be"  labor-question    is  coming  into  such  special  prominence, 

employed    at  #  ?  &,  •  c 

home-  it  may  be  well  to  bear  in  mind  that  a  ship,  or  the  figures 

which  express  its  value,  is  pre-eminently  an  aggregation  of 
goFtormyakedeannman  to^-  There  are  no  less  than  forty  distinct  branches 
ship-  of  mechanical  art,  involving  both  skill  and  capital,  engaged 

in  the  several  processes  whose  products  enter  into  the  con- 
struction of  a  steamship.  The  work  of  building  her  began 
with  the  hewing  the  timber  in  the  forest  and  digging  the 
ore  in  the  mine,  and  when  completed,  the  raw  material 
is ^aw  materia?- represents  but  five  per  cent,  of  her  cost,  and  the  other  nine- 
?jorfer  c '  1S  a  ty-five  per  cent,  is  the  price  of  the  labor  employed  in  bring- 
ing it  together  in  floating  form.  Tie'  variety  and  volume 
of  employment  which  would  be  supplied  to  classes  of  men 


0 


who  to-day  stand  much  in  need  of  it,  by  creating  an  active 
demand  for  ships,  can  hardly  be  over-estimated. 

Nor  should  it  be  lost  sight  of  that  the  yearly  cost  of .  Her  gross  earn- 

~  •/  «/  ings  are  40  per 

maintaining,  providing,  repairing,  and  running  a  ship  in 

active  service  is  so  great,  that  her  gross  earnings  must kept  at  home- 

equal  forty  per  cent,  per  annum  on  her  cost,  the  larger 

part  of  which  outlay  must  inevitably  go  to  the  country 

under  whose  nag  she  sails  and  by  whose  merchants  she  is 

owned. 

The  number  of  foreign  steamships  now  running  to  the   *s°  foreign 

~  *  ~  steamships, 

port  of  New  York  alone  is  about  150,  worth  at  the  least ^>rthnol9nm°to 
calculation  $90,000,000.  All  of  these  represent  foreign  York  alone, 
labor  and  capital,  but  the  trade  which  supports  them  is 
largely  American,  and  their  gross  receipts  are  a  tax  and 
charge  upon  American  productive  industry,  by  far  the 
greater  proportion  finding  their  way,  in  gold  or  its  equiva- 
lent, into  other  pockets  than  our  own. 

These  steamers  received,  in  gold,  for  freight  and  pas-  Their  freights 

°  °  1         and  passengers 

sengers  carried  in  one  year,  1872,  more  than  seventy-five'11  l8?2  wer,f 

c5  "         '  •'  575,000,000,  all 

millions  of  dollars — far  more  than  the  sum  of  which  we  paid  "Z^"^"" 

gts  —  more  tnun 

hear  so  much  as  being  annually  sent  out  of  the  country  to  S^S^SSSi" 
pay  the  coin  interest  on  that  part  of  our  national  debt  which 
is  held  abroad. 

How  shall  we  presume  to  say  we  are  disposed  to  make 
an  effort  for  the  resumption  of  specie  payments  while  we 
do  not  raise  a  hand  towards  closing  up  this  great  drain  of 
our  gold  to  Europe  ? 

There  are  other  leaks,  there  are  other  reforms  of  un- 
deniable importance,  but  none  that  calls  more  loudly  for 
practical  consideration  than  this. 

I  am  well  aware  wThat  great  questions  have  pressed  upon 
the  minds  of  our  public  men  during  the  ten  years  since  the 
war,  and  how  thoroughly  the  public  mind  has  likewise  been 
absorbed  and  diverted.    No  political  party  can  be  blamed,   some  party, 

,  .  some  statesmen 

nor  does  any  pist  censure  attach  to  any  of  our  statesmen, —the  statesmen 

,  .  of  all    parties — 

m  or  out  ot  power,  for  the  existing  state  of  affairs  ;  but  the  will  grapple  with 

°  this  question. 

ten  years  are  gone,  and  with  them  the  last  shadow  of  an 
excuse  for  a  further  continuance  of  what  may  be  fairly  re- 
garded as  a  shameful  national  neglect,  which  I  trust  may 
no  longer  continue.  Some  party,  or  at  least  some  active 
political  agency,  (I  earnestly  hope  it  may  be  the  able  and 


10 


patriotic  statesmen  of  all  parties,)  will  shortly  take  up  the 
subject  as  being  of  immediate  and  pressing  importance. 
Whoever  does  so  cannot  fail  to  inquire  and  discover  the 
great'fact  which  I  have  endeavored  to  set  forth,  of  the  vital 
connection  of  the  postal  service  with  the  creation  of  a  swift 
and  efficient  ocean  steam  marine,  and  will  discern  at  a 
glance  that  the  statesmen  of  Europe  were  wise  in  their 
generation  when  they  made  use  of  the  one  to  induce  a  con- 
centration of  too  timid  or  too  sluggish  capital  for  the  de- 
velopment of  the  other.  Such  a  statesman,  in  the  present 
condition  of  the  interests  involved,  would  be  at  once  con- 
what  shall  be  fronted  by  a  most  plentiful  lack  of  trustworthy  informa- 

done  to   furnish  9  .  . 

an  American  line  tiou,  aswell  as  by  an  unmanageable  mass  ot  conflicting 

of  steamships  to  . 

testimony  as  to  the  desires,  purposes,  and  capacity  of  the 
merchants  of  different  sections  ;  but  I  think  the  sufficient 
remedy  could  be  provided  beforehand,  and  at  the  same 
time  the  proposed  movement  could  be  made  to  assume 
broad  proportions  and  reach  toward  results  which  would 
otherwise  be  impossible  of  attainment. 

The  internal  commercial  system  of  the  United  States 
finds  its  seaboard  outlets  mainly  at  the  following  ports: 

Boston.  Boston,  with  the  Boston  and  Albany  and  minor  roads  as 

its  interior  feeders. 

New  York.  New  York,  with  the  Hudson,  the  Erie  canal,  the  New 
York  Central,  Hudson  river,  Harlem,  Erie,  and  other  rail- 
ways. 

Philadelphia.  Philadelphia,  with  the  Pennsylvania  Central  and  its 
huge  net-work  of  connections,  the  Reading  Railroad,  Arc. 

Baltimore.  Baltimore,  with  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad  and  its 
connections,  &c. 

New  Orleans.  New  Orleans,  with  the  Mississippi  river,  and  with  an 
auxiliary  railway  connection  which  is  yearly  increasing  in 
extent  and  efficiency. 

To  these  five  seaports  the  whole  interior  is  united  by  the 
most  tremendous  system  of  lake  and  river,  canal,  and  rail- 
way transportation  on  the  globe ;  and  the  next  ten  years, 
if  our  facilities  are  rightly  employed,  may  be  made  to  bring, 
not  only  to  the  inhabitants  of  these  and  other  seaports,  but 
to  the  most  distant  dwellers  of  the  Central  and  Pacific 
States,  such  an  era  of  prosperity  as,  in  their  present  de- 
pressed  and  suffering  condition,  they  little  dream  of.  They 


11 


have  the  means  and  the  capacity  for  superabundant  produc- 
tion ;  what  they  also  need  is  the  means  of  conveying  those 
products  to  all  the  markets  of  the  globe  in  such  a  manner 
that  the  very  money  they  pay  for  such  conveyance  shall  in- 
evitably return  and  be  spent  among  them.  This  would 
assure  prosperity  as  positively  as  the  reverse  state  of  affairs 
inflicts  upon  them  a  burden  of  tribute  which  they  cannot 
bear.  Up  to  the  present  time,  indeed,  it  has  seemed  as  if 
the  energy  and  skill  of  our  producers,  as  well  as  of  our  First  cxplore 
railway  builders,  has  almost  contented  itself  with  stopping  ca^tails^wYn 
both  freight  and  transportation  half  way  to  market  at  the  offer  to  do' 
seashore  termini  of  our  great  inland  system  ;  here  we  seem 
to  give  the  matter  up  and  resign  to  foreign  hands  the  costly 
privilege  of  managing  our  ocean  transits.  We  have  other 
taxes  which  we  must  and  will  pay,  but  this  one  wTe  cannot 
too  soon  repudiate. 

My  suggestion  is,  therefore,  that  the  Postmaster-General   Let  the  p.  m. 

■J        »p  '  G.  advertise,  and 

be  authorized  by  resolution  of  Congress  to  advertise  at see  at  wh^  low- 

a  est  rate  for  the 

once  for  proposals,  in  the  usual  form,  of  the  lowest  rates  [^"u^'maiis 
at  which  responsible  parties  will  contract  for  the  uiainte-y°Jar^rgSepr0^ib0^ 
nance,  for  a  term  of  years,  of  a  weekly  mail  service  from  SnThiine^from 
each  or  either  of  the  five  ports  named  to  such  a  port  or}ar|e  American 
ports  in  Europe,  as,  for  instance,  Liverpool,  England,  as  toiPbe  gradually 
should  seem  to  offer  the  greatest  commercial  advantage  eS  lines  are  estab- 

•  i  r-  i         a  •  i  •  ,  lished- 

with  reference  to  the  American  port ;  such  service  to  be 
performed  in  ships  of  not  less  than  4000  tons,  equal  in 
speed  and  every  other  quality  to  any  now  afloat. 

The  proposals  thus  obtained  should  provide  that  after 
the  expiration  of  one-half  the  specified  term  of  years,  a 
graduated  scale  of  decrease  should  reduce  the  annual  out- 
lay of  the  Government,  eventually,  to  the  postal  revenue 
actually  accruing  from  the  mails  transported. 

Such  a  proposition  would  summon  the  leading  merchants  capitalists  and 
of  each  of  the  five  ports  to  counsel  among  themselves,  and  would  then  CoZ 

,      £      '  .,(,    r     •  i  i  .  .  ii  suit  and  see  what 

the  iruit  of  their  consultations  and  investigations  could  not  they  could  do, 

.  °  t  and   make  their 

tail  to  include  such  a  mass  of  practical  and  valuable  infor-offers>  while  the 

1  Government 

mation  as  was  never  before  gathered,  while  the  now  scat-  w?ul(*  be  COIP" 

o  7  mitted   to  noth- 

tered,  unconsolidated  and  unapplied  forces  of  our  great ing- 
mercantile  communities  would  be  aggregated  and  combined 
in  such  a  manner  that  it  would  be  prepared  for  subsequent 
action.    At  the  same  time,  the  Government  would  be  in  no 


12 


way  committed  to  the  acceptance  of  any  or  either  oi  the 
propositions  thus  elicited. 
The  proposals     We  may  easily  satisfy  ourselves  that  if,  in  the  court  i  of 

and  investigation  d  d  •>  - 

rherlondiw oTA°d  events' tne  PolicJ  thus  outlined  should  result  in  the  estab- 
iieadtohtheesetrbdlisDmeilt  °*'  tlie  nve  lnies  of  steamships  proposed,  the  fleet 
stiaSip^inel!  of,  say.  twenty -five  first-class  vessels  thus  created  would  do 

the  re-establish-  ,1  i  1     i  i  /»  , 

mentofourmer- more  than  supply  h  needed  nucleus  tor  our  new  merchant 

cantile    marine,  .  T         "    -,  .  ,  ,  .  . 

and  the  creation  marine.    it  would  c<  hi s tan t  J y  employ  at  least  three  tnou- 

of  a  new  navy,  to  -i     m  . 

the  employment  sand  omcers  and  seamen,  ot  all  grades,  and  give  the  nation, 

of  labor,  and  the  .  °  °  7 

revival  of  our  in- what  it  now  has  not,  sonic  small  resources  of  practical 

dustries.  _  r 

seamanship  in  the  handling  of  such  vessels,  from  which 
to  man  our  national  ships  in  case  of  war.  At  the  same 
time,  the  ships  themselves  in  such  an  event  would  consti- 
tute an  invaluable  auxiliary  to  our  limited  and  restricted 
navy. 

To  an  absolute  certainty  we  might  also  calculate  that 
the  aggregation  of  capital  and  enterprise  thus  begun 
would  continue  indefinitely,  and  the  nucleus  thus  formed 
would  be  but  the  germ,  so  to  speak,  of  a  commercial 
marine  worthy  not  only  of  the  present,  but  of  the  future  of 
this  Republic. 

As  I  am  very  anxious  to  press  this  whole  subject  on 
your  most  serious  consideration,  allow  me  in  conclusion, 
sir,  to  say  that  the  present  depressed  condition  of  business, 
the  great  suffering  amongst  the  working  classes,  the  amount 
of  capital  seeking  investment,  the  cheapness  of  all  mate- 
rial entering  into  the  construction  of  a  ship,  now  as  low 
as  before  the  war,  all  point  to  this  as  the  most  favorable 
time  to  make  some  effort  to  rebuild  our  commercial  marine. 

The  plan  I  have  ventured  to  suggest  asks  no  help  or 
favor  from  the  Government,  only  that  American  labor  and 
American  capital  be  employed  to  do  the  work  now  done 
by  that  of  foreigners  ;  to  this  there  should  be  no  objection 
from  any  American  citizen,  in  whatever  section  of  our  com- 
mon country  he  may  reside,  and  whether  he  be  republican 
or  democrat,  protectionist  or  free-trader. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be,  very  respectfully  yours, 

JOHN  KOACH. 

Morgan  Ikon  Works,  New  York, 

Mwch  1.  is 7(i. 


lEx  Htbrta 


SEYMOUR  DURST 


When  you  leave,  please  leave  this  hook 

Because  it  has  heen  said 
" Ever'thinQ  comes  t'  him  who  waits 

Except  a  loaned  hook." 


